No. 2 Houston downs upstart Baylor 82-76 in OT

Feb 24, 2024, 03:13 PM ET WACO, Texas– L.J. Cryer scored 15 points against his previous group, including 6 complimentary tosses in overtime, as second-ranked and Big 12-leading Houston beat Baylor 82-76 on Saturday.The Cougars(24-3,

11-3 Huge 12)blew a 16-point halftime lead, and believed they had actually won the game on a long 3-pointer by Jamal Shead to end regulation before replay showed the ball was still in his hands when the clock ran out.Cryer’s two totally free throws with 3:06 left in OT put Houston back in the lead, and he added four more after that.Emanuel Sharp

had 18 points to lead the Cougars in their 5th successive win and 10th in 11 games. J’Wan Roberts had 17 points and eight rebounds, while Shead had 12 points and 10 assists.

Jamal Shead commemorates Houston’s overtime victory over Baylor on Saturday, helping the first-place Cougars improve to 11-3 atop the Big 12 standings. Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

Ja’Kobe Walter scored a game-high 23 points for Baylor (19-8, 8-6), while RayJ Dennis had 21. Jalen Bridges had 17 points and 13 rebounds, and Jayden Nunn scored 11 points.The Bears trailed throughout and didn’t connect the score up until Yves Missi, their 7-foot freshman, made a layup while being fouled with 4.4 seconds left in policy to make it 69-69. Roberts got the rebound of Missi’s missed out on complimentary throw, and Shead was just a tick late in ending the game without overtime.Baylor opened the

2nd half with a 12-0 run while Houston missed its first eight shots, an extreme change from the first half. Bridges scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half, including 9 consecutive points for the Bears in the final 5 1/2 minutes of regulation.The Cougars led 41-25

at halftime, scoring 13 points off 11 Baylor turnovers, a spurt of making 10 of 11 shots.Roberts got that stretch started with a pass from under the basket out to Emanuel Sharp on the extreme right for a 3-pointer with 14:26 left in the very first half to make it 9-3 and start that hot-shooting run, and the 6-foot-7 forward assisted on the next basket. When Roberts made a jumper with 7:57 left, the Cougars had their largest lead at 27-10. It was their first meeting as Big 12 opponents,

and first since the Last Four three years earlier when Baylor beat Houston in a semifinal game on way to winning its very first national championship. Cryer was then with the Bears, playing 20 games as a freshman that season and 70 overall the past 3 seasons before transferring to Houston.Cryer was booed each time he had the ball early on, and fans cheered his missed out on 3-pointer on Houston’s very first shot of the game.UP NEXT Houston is home Tuesday night versus Cincinnati.Baylor takes a trip about 90 miles north to play at TCU, which won 105-102 in triple overtime on Jan. 27 to become the first and just other opposing team to win at Foster Pavilion.